What is the CIA Triad and Why is it important? | Fortinet (2024)

The three letters in "CIA triad" stand for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. The CIA triad is a common model that forms the basis for the development of security systems. They are used for finding vulnerabilities and methods for creating solutions.

The confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information is crucial to the operation of a business, and the CIA triad segments these three ideas into separate focal points. This differentiation is helpful because it helps guide security teams as they pinpoint the different ways in which they can address each concern.

Ideally, when all three standards have been met, the security profile of the organization is stronger and better equipped to handle threat incidents.

Confidentiality involves the efforts of an organization to make sure data is kept secret or private. To accomplish this, access to information must be controlled to prevent the unauthorized sharing of data—whether intentional or accidental. A key component of maintaining confidentiality is making sure that people without proper authorization are prevented from accessing assets important to your business. Conversely, an effective system also ensures that those who need to have access have the necessary privileges.

For example, those who work with an organization’s finances should be able to access the spreadsheets, bank accounts, and other information related to the flow of money. However, the vast majority of other employees—and perhaps even certain executives—may not be granted access. To ensure these policies are followed, stringent restrictions have to be in place to limit who can see what.

There are several ways confidentiality can be compromised. This may involve direct attacks aimed at gaining access to systems the attacker does not have the rights to see. It can also involve an attacker making a direct attempt to infiltrate an application or database so they can take data or alter it.

These direct attacks may use techniques such as man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, where an attacker positions themselves in the stream of information to intercept data and then either steal or alter it. Some attackers engage in other types of network spying to gain access to credentials. In some cases, the attacker will try to gain more system privileges to obtain the next level of clearance.

However, not all violations of confidentiality are intentional. Human error or insufficient security controls may be to blame as well. For example, someone may fail to protect their password—either to a workstation or to log in to a restricted area. Users may share their credentials with someone else, or they may allow someone to see their login while they enter it. In other situations, a user may not properly encrypt a communication, allowing an attacker to intercept their information. Also, a thief may steal hardware, whether an entire computer or a device used in the login process and use it to access confidential information.

To fight against confidentiality breaches, you can classify and label restricted data, enable access control policies, encrypt data, and use multi-factor authentication (MFA) systems. It is also advisable to ensure that all in the organization have the training and knowledge they need to recognize the dangers and avoid them.

Integrity involves making sure your data is trustworthy and free from tampering. The integrity of your data is maintained only if the data is authentic, accurate, and reliable.

For example, if your company provides information about senior managers on your website, this information needs to have integrity. If it is inaccurate, those visiting the website for information may feel your organization is not trustworthy. Someone with a vested interest in damaging the reputation of your organization may try to hack your website and alter the descriptions, photographs, or titles of the executives to hurt their reputation or that of the company as a whole.

Compromising integrity is often done intentionally. An attacker may bypass an intrusion detection system (IDS), change file configurations to allow unauthorized access, or alter the logs kept by the system to hide the attack. Integrity may also be violated by accident. Someone may accidentally enter the wrong code or make another kind of careless mistake. Also, if the company’s security policies, protections, and procedures are inadequate, integrity can be violated without any one person in the organization accountable for the blame.

To protect the integrity of your data, you can use hashing, encryption, digital certificates, or digital signatures. For websites, you can employ trustworthy certificate authorities (CAs) that verify the authenticity of your website so visitors know they are getting the site they intended to visit.

A method for verifying integrity is non-repudiation, which refers to when something cannot be repudiated or denied. For example, if employees in your company use digital signatures when sending emails, the fact that the email came from them cannot be denied. Also, the recipient cannot deny that they received the email from the sender.

The CIA triad provides a simple yet comprehensive high-level checklist for the evaluation of your security procedures and tools. An effective system satisfies all three components: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. An information security system that is lacking in one of the three aspects of the CIA triad is insufficient.

The CIA security triad is also valuable in assessing what went wrong—and what worked—after a negative incident. For example, perhaps availability was compromised after a malware attack such as ransomware, but the systems in place were still able to maintain the confidentiality of important information. This data can be used to address weak points and replicate successful policies and implementations.

You should use the CIA triad in the majority of security situations, particularly because each component is critical. However, it is particularly helpful when developing systems around data classification and managing permissions and access privileges. You should also stringently employ the CIA triad when addressing the cyber vulnerabilities of your organization. It can be a powerful tool in disrupting the Cyber Kill Chain, which refers to the process of targeting and executing a cyberattack. The CIA security triad can help you hone in on what attackers may be after and then implement policies and tools to adequately protect those assets.

In addition, the CIA triad can be used when training employees regarding cybersecurity. You can use hypothetical scenarios or real-life case studies to help employees think in terms of the maintenance of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information and systems.